Bali Hai, baby! “South Pacific,” the Tony winning revival of the classic Rodgers & Hammerstein musical will sway into SF as part of the Best of Broadway Series. The tropical tuner will run at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Theatre this September. Bartlett Sher (“Light in the Piazza”) helms the much ballyhooed musical, which replaces the previously announced “Ever After,” based on that super cute Drew Barrymore flick. The pomo fairytale “Ever After” has been indefinitely postponed, alas. As for “South Pacific,” come to me, come to me.

There’s still time left to see the return engagement of the bloody best stage show in existence. And, no, I’m not talking about “Cats.” I mean, of course, “Evil Dead: The Musical.”

Granted, this ranking comes from a major B-movie horror freak, one who has seen the original “Evil Dead” film series about a zillion times. (“Evil Dead 2,” by the way, has to rank in the top 10 all-time best horror flicks, right up there with “Basket Case” and “Bride of Chucky.”)

Still, it’s hard to imagine anybody with a decent sense of humor (and a rain poncho) not enjoying this stage show.The plot is pretty traditional: a bunch of college-age kids head out to the woods and get into a bunch of trouble. What is done with the plot, however, is anything but traditional.

This is a laugh-a-minute b-grade horror, the kind of stuff that would cause Ed Wood to spit popcorn. Yet, it’s also exceedingly clever. It may even be, and I say this with extreme caution, more clever than the films themself.

The guy who plays Ash (the Bruce Campbell character in the movies) is absolutely terrific. The whole cast, mind you, is strong. But the guy who plays Ash is so on-the-money. Not sure if I could see the play, and enjoy it as much, with anybody else in this role. (I wish I had the guy’s name handy – but I can’t find my program, nor cast info on the web site. If you know is name, please post here.)The production, like the films, contains chainsaw action and living dead tomfoolery. Lots of death scenes and undead scenes. And, most of all, tons of “blood.” Really stinky “blood” (though, I’m told that the actual stink comes from when the fake blood hits the stage, causing the stage to stink, as opposed to the blood itself.

Just an FYI, there.)If you want to experience the “blood” in all its gory glory, make sure to buy tickets in the “splatter zone” and prepare to get wet. So, I applaud Willows Theatre Company for this fine presentation. And, I can only dream that, someday, the company will follow this gore fest by presenting the world premiere of “Basket Case: The Musical.”

Has it been a while since you’ve thought about Final Fantasy XIII? It has for me. The first footage didn’t really click for me, I’m not sure why.

But now I’m excited.

Square-Enix has posted a new trailer on each of its sites and a somewhat lower-quality embed is just above this text. If you want to get the full quality version from one of the sites I suggest the American one both because it’s right on the home page and because it has English subtitles, which definitely help understand what exactly is going on. (I’ll embed the video at the top of this post as soon as someone posts an embedable version, until then just go to this link, it’s right on the first page.)

My analysis? I want this game. There’s actual gameplay footage at the end and it looks like Final Fantasy which is a good sign, companies are too tempted to mess with success these days. Not to mention a return to sci-fi. And some incredible graphics on top of everything else.

So what do you think? Let us know in the comments.

Update: Still no embed sadly but the Japanese site’s version has no subtitles, but if you just want the visuals and don’t care what they’re saying it’s much higher-res. Go to their site, click “Trailers” down at the bottom then click the only one that comes up.

Another Update: Note: HUGE SUCCESS. Trailer added to the top of the post. Now you can bask in its glory without even leaving this page.

The Nassau Guardian is reporting that Bahamian police have confirmed an alleged plot to extort $25 million from actor John Travolta and his wife Kelly Preston by conspirators who threatened to sell a “damaging” document.

For those of you with some time to kill, a thirst for puzzles and an empty bank account, I present to you: Another free installment of Grow. It’s a fun if short game and it’s free, how can you do better than that?

This one isn’t impossible but it is pretty tricky. Throws you off the trail with quite a few combination that look like they work but actually don’t, so don’t set any pairs in stone just because it has an effect.

If you need a hint we’ll either help or heckle you in the comments, I’m not making any promises as to which.

The news isn’t good for “Ugly Betty” fans. ABC plans to bump the show from its Thursday-night time slot in March.

Replacing “Ugly Betty” will be a pair of female-centric sitcoms: “Samantha Who?” and the new “In the Motherhood.” (ABC continues to be the Lifetime of broadcast nets).

“Motherhood,” based on the popular Web series of the same name, stars Cheryl Hines (“Curb Your Enthusiasm”) and Megan Mullally (“Will & Grace”). It launches March 26.

Meanwhile, ABC denies that “Ugly Betty” is canceled, but its future doesn’t look very promising. After earning glowing reviews and a loyal audience in its debut season, it has lost much of its ratings luster. Last week, Fox moved “Bones” into the 8 p.m. time slot vs. “Betty” and “Bones” cleaned “Betty”‘s clock.

Thursday, of course, continues to be the key battleground in the network wars. ABC, which had come on strong a couple years ago with the one-two punch of “Betty” and “Grey’s Anatomy,” now appears to be waning and is desperate to regain some traction on the night.